Pipe Organ
The town hall is famous for its concert pipe organ. Originally installed in 1834 by William Hill with 4 manuals and 70 stops, this was subject to many rebuilds and alterations, all by William Hill, until a restoration by Willis in 1932. By 1956 the organ had been enlarged to 90 stops.
The most recent restorations in 1984 and 2007 have been by Manders of London.
A current specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.
Read more about this topic: Birmingham Town Hall
Famous quotes containing the words pipe and/or organ:
“I am dead against art’s being self-expression. I see an inherent failure in any story which fails to detach itself from the author—detach itself in the sense that a well-blown soap-bubble detaches itself from the bowl of the blower’s pipe and spherically takes off into the air as a new, whole, pure, iridescent world. Whereas the ill-blown bubble, as children know, timidly adheres to the bowl’s lip, then either bursts or sinks flatly back again.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“And this mighty master of the organ of language, who knew its every stop and pipe, who could awaken at will the thin silver tones of its slenderest reeds or the solemn cadence of its deepest thunder, who could make it sing like a flute or roar like a cataract, he was born into a country without literature.”
—Willa Cather (1873–1947)